we set off, with pedometers and a timer set too, on a slightly cloudy but sunny afternoon around 2:10pm, aiming for a nearby village to test for picnic spots. so we walked up the back roads, under the arch, across the cattle grid, and i discovered a 'Gandalf staff' which i carried for a while. we walked slowly at first, and i picked a few daffodils and tucked them into my jumper. as we reached the common, it started getting colder, and i ditched my Gandalf staff against a wall for someone else to discover and enjoy. then it got very very windy, and before long it started raining. we pushed on through, being very cold and numb on our faces and fingers, which consequently felt like they were burning. eventually, the rain became too much for me to see through my glasses, so i put them in my pocket. we messed around and the huge rain clouds passed. i ran down some small hills on the common and then realised my glasses.....had gone. i shouted to my mum and we traced our path back on the flat expanses of the common to try and find them. of course, i had a harder job because my vision was bad without my glasses, but finally i found them and we kept going. we stopped by a closed cafe and peeked through the windows, and i stole another daffodil. we kept walking down through some trees and by the road to a place where the pavement stopped. we kept going down the road known as 'the ladder' and found it was steeper and less pavement-y than expected. i stole some other daffodils and we stopped to take photos frequently. we took a slight detour and cut some of the corner off the twisty road. we had to walk along the actual road at one point because the pavement stopped completely. when we arrived at the bottom of the hill, in the village, we stopped in a Morrison's for a toilet break. then we moved on to a bakery in which we purchased hot chocolates and pastries. we ate those by the river and then made our way to the original destination. i felt about 8 again, since we used to visit this route as a cycle path a lot. so i skipped along and laughed a lot. then we went down the path to the stream and i took some lovely photos there. ( i want to back for a picnic in three weeks, but there isn't really a suitable place for our blankets to go down. ) but we kept along the path adjacent to the stream, jumping over a little river-let, until it ended and we had to go back up slope. we continued down the scene forest route for a bit until we came to a crossroads which we had never been down before. we found a cute underground tunnel which we took photos of, and i ditched my current daffodils. then we walked up the path and took silly photos. i frolicked about and felt so free. then we went down a road which had the most "chocolate box"-y houses, as my mum said, at which point i started stealing more flowers and making the cutest bouquet ever! we passed very few people, and stopped even more frequently for photos of the beautifully blue sky and wonderful nature around us. then we kept going up twisty roads until we came to somewhere vaguely familiar to my mum. then we found a place we knew and kept going from there. we made our way up the hill, checked our pedometers, 10000 steps! at which point the sun started fading slowly. then we kept going up the hill, thinking of going to the ice cream factory, but being slightly lost and trying to figure out where it was. finally we made it back to the common, realised it was past 5 o'clock and the ice cream factory would be closed. so we caught the almost sunset, and saw huge heavy rain clouds behind us. we literally chased the sunny patches of lighter clouds to make it home before it rained. slowly, they caught up closer and closer, until we were very close to home. halfway down the hill to home, it caught us, heavily. we got caught in the very heavy downpour and hail! the scent of petrichor was so overpowering i wanted to capture it so badly. we raced back home and got safely home, tired, but thoroughly adventured!

so sorry for not posting for over a month, photos didn't upload so i gave up on a post last week. i'll try harder though guys, sorry. :/